


Keeping Faith

by Harukami



Series: For The Birds [11]
Category: DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-03
Updated: 2014-11-03
Packaged: 2018-02-23 22:43:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2558405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harukami/pseuds/Harukami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They finally track down Ryuuhou and decide to deal with him once and for all. All doesn't go flawlessly -- not for Beni and Huracan, either.</p><p>This is the climax -- only one part left after this!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keeping Faith

It turns out that, once Koujaku is willing to accept help, there are many people who either want or are willing to get involved. 

Huracan misses a lot of the initial gatherings because he's with Mink back at Scratch headquarters. Mink is fully prepared to get in another fight, if necessary, to convince Scratch to pull together on a job. If he got in a fight for just showing his face around again, it seemed inevitable that things would get harder if he wanted to actually put them at risk again. 

But when he strides into the main room, none of the members who had picked a fight the previous time are anywhere in sight. His brows draw down, and under his claws, Huracan can feel him tense even more at that, looking around.

"Yo," Takemoto calls. "Welcome back, Old Boss."

Takemoto, it seems, has more or less taken over in Mink's absence. Mink makes a nonverbal sound of greeting, frowning around again, and says, "They're not here."

"Those assholes? Yeah, obviously," Takemoto says. "We told 'em we stood by you and they didn't. You know the rules around here, boss. They've been taken care of."

Huracan thinks that Mink, perhaps, doesn't know how to react to that. He hears the soft rush of air between Mink's teeth, sees the way Mink's head draws up fully. He's touched, Huracan thinks, that they do truly care, that they did truly miss him, and at the same time he can't separate that from the person he was here, the lifestyle he chose to live. Even this, punishing -- or executing, perhaps -- the troublesome members was something that he had instituted to keep order in a group of criminals. Mink had never turned anyone away at the start -- murderers, robbers, arsonists, rapists, all were fine. There was no judgment, because there was nobody among them who wasn't scum. It was only if they acted out of line that he'd bring the force of his cruelty down on them. That was the only rule: obey authority. And Mink was authority. It was the only way for a team like Scratch to stay together. Since Scratch was still together, Takemoto had stepped up to take authority, with Yuzawa his right hand man, and they are doubtless living as Mink had lived.

For a moment, Huracan thinks Mink almost wants to apologize, but he feels Mink's heart rate return to even again as he gets himself under control. "Yeah," he says. "There's some work I've got for you guys if you're up for it."

"Been too quiet 'round here with Platinum Jail gone anyway," Yuzawa says, cracking his neck. "What's the deal?"

"You remember back when people were getting spirited away? That shit with Dry Juice."

"Who could forget?"

Mink looks down on them coolly, and Huracan observes him, wonders what this is costing him right now. "Trying to track down the tattoo artist whose ink fucked with their minds. You in?"

Takemoto glances around the room. "Hey, the old boss asks if we're in with him," he says.

One of the men in the crowd sticks up a hand. "Lost a brother to that," he says, and Huracan thinks he probably doesn't mean a literal brother, but in places like this that doesn't much matter.

"Guess we're in," Takemoto says.

***

Huracan returns with Mink to Koujaku's apartment to find Koujaku and Beni out, and Aoba in a call with Noiz.

"--I know it's not your business," Aoba was saying, a little strained. "You're such a brat sometimes! Look, we never had that Rhyme match you wanted, right? If you help out with this Ren and I will make it happen."

"Tch," Noiz says, and Huracan picks out Usagimodoki in the background, a quiet _Noiz! Noiz! Help out, Noiz!_ "Fine. I'll be over in forty. Hey, is that the bird back there?"

Aoba turns to look, and brightens when he sees Mink. "Ah, yeah!"

"You. Mink."

"Maniac."

"I'm not a maniac," Noiz retorts automatically, irritable. "You should check on your bird, you know. Uncontrolled emotions are a sign that this bug in their system may be activating--"

"There's nothing wrong with my bird," Mink says. "See you in forty." He leans over Aoba and hangs up the coil.

Aoba protests, "Hey," just as Mink kisses him. Huracan looks away politely until he hears them separating, the gentle smack and mutual exhalations.

"Was it tough?" Aoba says after a moment.

Mink's lips tighten again, but he says nothing, just sits next to him and takes his hand. "They'll help."

"Ugh, Mink..."

"The past just seems to refuse to remain the past lately," Mink says shortly.

"Ah," Aoba says. His thumb caresses the side of Mink's hand, and he nods after a moment, smiling a bit awkwardly. " _We're_ doing okay, though."

"Should we be?"

"We are, though," Aoba says. "...Anyway, this whole thing is a bit weirdly like old times, huh? All of us working together to help out. You know Benishigure will back Koujaku no matter what, and given what happened to Mizuki and their other members, Dry Juice is going to be out for blood too. So that's a lot of backing we have once we've found this guy."

Mink says, "Not all of us. Whatever happened to Gas Mask?"

"Clear, huh? I'm not sure, I never heard from him once I went out to be with you," Aoba says. "Do you think we should bring him in?"

"He's strong, anyway. If it comes to a fight, he could be handy," Mink says. "Call him."

Aoba makes a face. "I don't have his number. You know him, he'd always just show up."

"Not like that," Mink says. " _Call_ him. Use your voice."

"Ah -- you really think he can hear that? I know he said it, but..." Aoba sounds dubious, but raises his voice anyway: "Um, Clear?"

Ren lifts his head. "Aoba, I think he means your 'special' voice.."

"Oh, right. This is dumb, though, there's no way to hear me from here..." Aoba seems to focus, drawing his brows down. "Clear? Will you come here? I'm at Koujaku's place."

His voice this time is _different_. Huracan can feel it reverberate in him, a thrum of electrical impulse riding the network around him; he shivers at the force of it. 

"See? Nothing," Aoba says, less than a minute later, and Mink puts a hand on his head. 

"Give it time," Mink says.

Sure enough, less than twenty minutes later, there's a crash from the steps leading up to Koujaku's apartment. Aoba scrambles up from his seat, flinging the front door open in alarm, and Huracan flaps over to land on Aoba's shoulder to see what he's seeing.

Clear has landed pretty much on his face, one leg flung over the railing, the other still pinwheeling in the air. 

"Clear!" Aoba chokes out, strangled with alarm.

"Master!" Clear somehow sorts his limbs out and springs upright. The opaque lenses on his gas mask appear fogged over, as if he'd been crying. "Master, you're here! In town! You're here! I heard you, so I came!!"

"Ah, calm down," Aoba manages, as Clear latches onto him and bawls. "I'm -- sorry? I didn't know you'd missed me so much, jeez--! What have you been up to?"

"I have slept," Clear says.

"...Something else too, right?"

"No," Clear says. "Since Master wasn't here, I slept."

Huracan places what he's feeling at that moment. When Oval Tower had been up, the Tower's network had masked it -- he had never noticed anything particularly unusual from Clear. With that network down, though, it's blatantly obvious. Clear doesn't give off the signals of a human but something not unlike an Allmate. Of course, Huracan thinks. Of course he 'slept."

Aoba doesn't get it, though, naturally, and just shakes his head. "I don't really get it," he says, "but you can't just put your life on hold for me, Clear!"

"Master..."

"You mustn't go back to doing nothing when I go back again, okay? You've got to get out, make friends!" 

"Um," Clear says, in an indistinct tone, neither agreeing or disagreeing. "Why did you call me, Master?"

As Clear follows Aoba inside, Huracan sees Ren sit up as well, head cocking as he takes notice of the differences as well. Noiz, he thinks, will soon learn too, because Usagimodoki will notice, and Usagimodoki keeps nothing from Noiz. But perhaps that's for the best. If Noiz takes an interest in Clear... well, he probably won't treat Clear like a person at first, but Clear won't put up with that; likewise, Clear helping out Koujaku will get Koujaku and Beni's attention. Perhaps he won't be like an abandoned Allmate any longer.

And in a way, knowing this about Clear, too, is reassuring. Clear is obviously more advanced technology than an Allmate like himself, but he has a wide emotional range; it's likely, then, that their emotional AI is developed with the full range. It would make sense, since owners can pick their Allmates' personality profile. Then, in Allmates, the unpicked emotions are just locked out. If that were the case...

...Perhaps this range of emotions he's feeling isn't unnatural after all. Perhaps it's simply a sign that he's broken that lock.

It's nice to think that perhaps he can be in love without being broken in some way.

***

Noiz does indeed show up, and while Koujaku and he nearly get into a brawl when Koujaku comes back, Aoba manages to calm them both down and convince Koujaku that Noiz is there to help. Koujaku reports that, sure enough, Benishigure is ready for action whenever, and Dry Juice wants revenge badly. Mizuki can't make it, still isn't well enough to stand up to a real fight; they seem determined to draw twice as much blood for that fact alone. 

Everyone focuses on info-gathering, and it only takes a few days before Noiz, following up on some info Scratch turned up, finds what seems to be Ryuuhou's current location. It's on the mainland, in the estate of a yakuza family there.

The name is familiar to Huracan as well as Noiz, and Koujaku goes pale when he hears it. "That's my father," he says finally. "...They were old friends, you know, him and Ryuuhou. I suppose I took the full blame for what happened, and Ryuuhou took none."

"Koujaku," Aoba says. He puts a hand on Koujaku's arm; Huracan notices Mink's eyes flick between them, but Mink chooses to do nothing, say nothing. He wonders, briefly, if Mink thinks that Aoba might be better off if he could return Koujaku's feelings. "What do you want to do?"

Koujaku puts his face in a hand, silent for a long moment. They watch him, both those who understand his past and those who don't; it's clear to everyone that this is a big deal to him. Even if Koujaku has no love for his father, going back to that place will reopen old wounds.

As the moment stretches on, Beni clearly can't bear it; he bursts out with, "C'mon, man! We'll get this guy for you, no matter where he is!"

Koujaku lifts his head at that, then his hand, stroking Beni. "I don't see any other option," he agrees finally. "If he's hiding out with my father, or not... we have to take him down no matter what."

***

Aoba turns Ren off for the fight, though Aoba himself insists on coming along despite both Mink and Koujaku's protests. The others should, by all rights, turn their Allmates off too, but Beni argues passionately.

"There's no way you're leaving me behind, man!" Beni practically yells at Koujaku -- far too loudly for a covert operation, and Koujaku is left shushing him awkwardly as their gathered gangs shift in the cover around the complex. "I'm with you all the way, you got it?"

"Okay, Beni, okay, just -- don't go flying in the way of any gunfire."

"Do I look stupid?"

"I'm not answering that," Koujaku says, and pats him.

Mink, for his part, just looks at Huracan once and sighs. He doesn't even ask, and Huracan doesn't even offer. Unlike Beni, he's not particularly passionate about this, and he certainly intends to keep out of the way of the thick of battle, but he, too, wishes to see this to the end. Mink understands that, or understands something, anyway. Mostly, he looks tired and put-upon. 

"On my signal," Koujaku says, lifts a hand, waits a moment as he watches the front gate, and then lowers his hand.

The next half hour or so is chaos. There's gunfire from both sides, and fistfighting, and the occasional clash of metal weapons -- from the sounds of things, too, some of the Scratch members had brought explosives. Koujaku had requested that people try to end all battles as non-lethally as possible -- they were trying to take out this one man, not wipe out this entire clan. But there are always people who would interpret that liberally. Smoke fills the air, with yelling and screaming and the sounds of fighting creating a general sense of confusion.

If Huracan weren't with the first group -- Koujaku, Mink, and Clear in the lead to clear the way, and Aoba following with Hagima, Kou, and Yuzawa behind along with several members of Dry Juice, with Huracan and Beni flying above; Noiz had stayed behind to keep hacking in and confusing security -- he wasn't sure he'd be able to track their progress through. Koujaku, at least, clearly still knows this place, taking sharp turns, leading ever inward to the center of the complex until they come to a large open room and the group stops abruptly.

Several yakuza are holed up there, guns trained on the entrance, with a tall and imposing elegant older man in a formal suit standing next to a blond-haired man in a blue kimono. 

The man in the suit strides forward, ignoring the soft laughter of his companion. The resemblance is undeniable -- although Koujaku probably takes after his mother, the line of his jaw, his lean nose and fine brow are all visible in the boss here. "Koujaku," he says, reaching into his jacket. "We were willing to let things be, so long as you left. To come back to finish the job is--"

He doesn't get to finish whatever speech he's planning; Koujaku whips out an arm which seems, somehow, too long, and slams it into the man broadside before he can even finish drawing his gun. "I'm not here for _you_ , you bastard!" he roars.

His father is flung aside like he weighs nothing, swung across the room and through a wall, where he lays unmoving. The yakuza, who hadn't fired with their boss in the way, start to raise their guns again and Mink swears, lifts his own hand. Clear flies past, slamming into one man -- crying, it seems, all the way -- and Benishigure and Scratch's members run in to occupy the yakuza.

Koujaku is not well, Huracan notices. Aoba notices it too, clearly, saying his name in a tone of concern; Koujaku doesn't look around at all, growl rising into a roar: "RyuuuuhhooooUUU!"

"Oya oya," the man in the blue kimono says, still smiling, laughter in his voice. He spreads his arms, as if he wants to offer Koujaku an embrace. "When you didn't show up in Oval Tower, I wondered if my art had failed me. That you've come to seek me out warms my heart, Koujaku." He speaks Koujaku's name like a lover might, soft and tender and for Koujaku's ears only, as if all these others weren't listening, as if the room hadn't broken into combat. "I've wanted to see you blossom all these years."

"You bastard," Koujaku growls. His voice is wrong -- his body, too, is wrong, Huracan notices, his shoulders too wide, his hair color seeming to bleed through each strand. With his kimono stripped to his waist, the red splash of his tattoos is startlingly visible. His hand is so tight on his sword's hilt that it seems almost to groan under his grip.

And then, unexpectedly, Beni flies into Ryuuhou's face. "Ya bastard!" he shrills. "You're the fuckshit who's done this to my master, huh?! Take this, and this-!"

An irritable expression crosses Ryuuhou's face. "Not elegant at all," he murmurs, apparently to himself, and swats Beni aside.

Beni is too close to dodge; he takes the back of Ryuuhou's hand and is flung into a pair of tussling combatants; hit there, too, he tumbles to the floor. Huracan doesn't even feel himself take off, almost doesn't notice he's moved until he's crouched over Beni, shielding him with the bulk of his body and the circle of his larger wings.

"Stupid little sparrow," he says.

Beni croaks, "Asshole bird, let me up--"

But things change quickly. It's as if seeing Beni get hit snaps the last thread of restraint holding Koujaku back, and he growls, eyes gone fully red, hair too long and too red, muscles bulging obscenely, tearing even the sarashi he has wrapped around his torso. Huracan doesn't have time to watch Koujaku, though; the air goes out of Beni, and his eyes go white as he collapses.

Of course, Huracan thinks, staring down at the tiny, crumpled form between his feet. Beni's consciousness as an Allmate is tied to his master's. It's how they go online together; if the owner goes online so does the Allmate. Wherever his consciousness is now, it seemed that Beni's is similarly absent. Beni starts thrashing a moment later, apparently in a blind rage, and Huracan bears his weight down to try to keep Beni still. 

He looks up again when he hears the crunch of breastbone and the spray of blood. Koujaku has run Ryuuhou through, is standing screaming his rage there -- his anger seems unabated in the face of Ryuuhou's death, and even the fighting participants have frozen, staring. Several of the yakuza turn and make a break for it -- of course, Huracan thinks again, a bit numbly. Some of them will have seen this before. All of them have probably heard about what happened the last time.

Aoba is the only one who runs toward him. Huracan looks quickly at Mink, but Mink has made no move to stop Aoba, is gazing at him with an unconscious yakuza still in his hands, his expression concerned and understanding. 

"Koujaku!" Aoba yells. Koujaku turns, swings his sword at him; Aoba only barely ducks but somehow manages -- Huracan feels something like relieved horror; he can't even imagine describing this scene to Ren later -- and lunges forward, grabbing Koujaku's face, staring at him. "Koujaku, come back to me, come back--"

And he seems to realize Koujaku can't, won't, doesn't wait for Koujaku to swing again: " _I'll go inside you_ ," Aoba says in _that_ voice, and the two of them crumple immediately. Under Huracan, Beni too goes limp.

In the silence after, Mink rises, flinging the unconscious man he was holding onto aside, and snaps at the people around them. "What the hell are you waiting for? Secure the area!" As people scramble to do so, he goes over to sit next to Aoba. 

Huracan watches as Mink takes Aoba's hand in his own, holds it tight. He doesn't disturb them otherwise, doesn't remove Aoba from where he's collapsed against Koujaku. For a moment, Huracan is filled with admiration for his master. Although he can't bring himself to move away from Beni's small form, and there's nothing he could do even if he left Beni, he feels like he understands, in this moment, what's happening. Mink can do nothing but support Aoba. He doesn't know what's happening in there. He doesn't know if Aoba will succeed and retrieve them both, or fail so they are both lost. He doesn't know if Aoba, tangling with Koujaku's consciousness, will come to love Koujaku. It was seeing what was in Mink's mind that possessed Aoba with the need to learn more, understand more, go all that way to be with him and struggle for happiness, after all. Huracan is sure that all of these thoughts are in Mink's mind as he holds Aoba's hand, and still, Mink chooses simply to support him.

"Master..." Clear has extracted himself from a pile of yakuza, come over to stare down at Aoba and Koujaku's unconscious forms, at Mink holding his hand. 

"He'll be fine," Mink says, in the same tone that he'd given his orders in. He obviously doesn't wish to let Clear worry, and Clear's gas mask comes up as he looks at Mink; it's impossible to read Clear's reaction, but he nods a moment later, hugs his knees, watches them.

One by one, people return, the perimeter held by other members, and the core wanting to see what's going on. Kou and Hagima, worried about their boss and close friend. The Dry Juice members. Yuzawa and Takemoto too, standing back and watching this display of faith and love. Surely they, too, have seen what's going on and realize why their old boss has changed so much. But people simply silently watch.

Ten minutes pass. Fifteen. Twenty. Twenty three.

And then Koujaku's hair starts to turn black again. His muscles are still overlarge, his hair still red at the tips, but he draws a great, gasping breath. Aoba stirs a moment later, sitting upright, clutching his head and groaning as if it hurts him. He holds onto Mink's hand as if it's a lifeline pulling him back out, and perhaps, Huracan thinks, it is. Is there anything wrong with harboring such romantic thoughts?

"Mink," Aoba mutters, and Mink pulls him into a sitting position, wrapping an arm around him in half-embrace, half-support. "I'm back," he groans, and leans on Mink.

"Yeah. And Koujaku?" He's used his name, Huracan notes.

"...I'm fine," Koujaku manages, and opens his eyes, smiling. There are tears on his cheeks, but he looks like himself again even from here, has good cheer on his face again, a lightness that Huracan hadn't noticed in him since this all began. "Good, actually, all things considered."

"Koujaku-san!" Clear says, and claps. "Congratulations, you are back to yourself!"

"Boss!" "Hey, you're okay!" Benishigure members crowd close quickly.

"Yeah," Koujaku says. "Thanks to a good friend." He claps Aoba on the shoulder and uses it for leverage as he staggers upright. "And we should be getting going before anyone here wakes up. Come on, what's everyone looking at?"

"Oi, Bird!!"

Huracan draws his attention back hurriedly, bends down to look between his legs. Beni glares back at him woozily. "Beni," he says.

"Get off. You're heavy."

Huracan can't smile; he's a bird Allmate, after all, and beaks aren't made for such things. But he reaches down and tugs, lightly, on the tuft of feathers on Beni's head, preens him relentlessly. 

"I have a name, Sparrow," he says.

"Huracan, get up, you're heavy, we have to go, jeez--!"

"Idiot Beni," Huracan says. He steps back, lets Beni up, watches him shake himself and puff his feathers up, distraught and confused and embarrassed. "Don't worry me like that. I love you, fool," and then before Beni can respond to him at all, he flies back to Mink's shoulder and leaves Beni to find his own master.

Under the circumstances, holding Aoba close and helping him to the exit, he doubts Mink even fully registers his extra weight. But that's just as well, since he has no idea what kind of expression he's making right now, and isn't sure what to say if he had the chance to say anything.

He rubs his cheek with a claw and refuses to let himself look back at Beni to see his reaction.


End file.
